Phil Schneider, Eric Ritz, Matt D, Sebastian, and other friends write about pro wrestling. Follow us @segundacaida
Thursday, March 31, 2016
MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 22: Atlantis, Hirooki Goto, Negro Casas vs La Sombra, Rush, Strong Man
2011-04-08 @ Arena México
Atlantis, Hirooki Goto, Negro Casas vs La Sombra, Rush, Strong Man
I probably shouldn't linger too much on trios matches that are just fun. That said, there are a bunch of title matches in this period for Sombra, but we don't have them online so I am lingering a bit out of necessity.
That said, there's a lot to see here. First you have Goto as a fish out of water. Then there's Casas and Atlantis teaming as rudos, which is enjoyable. You have Strong Man, Jon Anderson, who's pretty terrible, but a really wonderful foil for someone like Negro Casas to play off of. They did things like hit a double suplex on him in the primera only to have it backfire in the tercera. And there's Rush, who, by this point, while bood heavily by the post-Mistico crowd, was willing to hit really hard and lean into things. His entire current existence as an Ingobernable was probably because he got a bum deal here. He was working hard and deserved something other than the boos.
Sombra sort of disappears here until the end of the match, more than I've seen him do lately. Some of that is Anderson taking up a lot of the screen. Some of it is Rush's eagerness. His one big exchange with Goto in the tecera felt a bit disjointed. He did have a much better one with Casas shortly thereafter and finished things up with Atlantis and a big step up plancha on Goto. The difference in reaction to him and Rush was striking.
Another quick and fun trios. Strong Man was the captain here. Rush more of the focus, with dynamic strike exchanges against both Goto and Casas (including brawling with Goto after the match). Sombra was more of a background role but he played it well.
Sin Salida 2010 had been a pretty good show so far. Sure, the booking was a mess but the minis match was fun, and the two lower card matches with Los Invasores had the same sort of energy that their matches over the last month had and then the Revelos Increibles match was heated and effective.
Then we had this. It was definitely a nostalgia fest. Los Hermanos Dinomita and Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. were moving less smoothly than Porky in there at times. They had a few dives and I could have sworn the slow motion replay was on. Then to balance them you had Bernard and Strongman. I don't get how anyone thought this would be a good idea.
Rayo came out with a hat and a UWA title. Universo and Mascara Ano wore their masks to the ring. The rudos took an early advantage, mainly due to Bernard being such a force but their tandem offense wasn't exactly dynamite. There was a lackluster double lift snake eyes in the corner. Really, their best move for most of this match was to toss people into Albert's foot, after which point, he'd do his overhead X with thumbs down pose. It was kind of fun the first time but it got old.
Basically, the match had two things going for it. First, Bernard did well. He was doing little things like driving his forearm into Porky's face on a pin, and he did match up well with Strongman. By the time the comeback came around in the tercera he was playing into some of Porky's spots and selling and hamming it up big. The second thing was that Strongman is a pretty effective tool for rudos to run into. I was wondering how they were going to kill something like nine minutes for the tercera (the peril of watching match online is that you know how long is left in it at almost any point) and 2-3 minutes can be taken up by Strongman top wristlock strength spots and shoulder tackles or what not.
Another minute or two was taken up by Albert doing some really brutal armwork onto Strongman in order to take him out of the match. I could have watched another five or six minutes of that, really. It made me want to track down some more Bernard in Japan. Anyway, the whole point of it was to distract the refs with the carnage of him finding a foreign object to smash the arm (which he then failed to find?) so that Universo could hit a pile driver on Rayo.
In all the lucha matches I've seen over the last year, well over two or three hundred, I think this is the first time I actually saw a pile driver executed (and not, for instance, Rush's double underhook pile driver). For this. By Universo, on Rayo. The upside to this is that Universo and Rayo were sticking around for a bit at least. They even had a WWA title match main event at Puebla at the end of the month, so it's not like it was a total waste, but the fans, who were otherwise into this, didn't seem all that upset by it certainly.
Anyway, this was a match and I kind of wish it hadn't been.
MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 20: Strong Man & Volador Jr. vs Héctor Garza & Místico [Super Libre]
Taped 2010-05-31 @ Arena Puebla
Héctor Garza & Místico vs. Strong Man & Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles, super libre]
6:55 in
http://youtu.be/CgGTLhdxU8A
http://youtu.be/92nL14u0Zc8
http://youtu.be/J0cXrCYT0kg
I continue to feel the need to defend watching these matches. I've got no love for Andersen or Volador certainly, but I enjoyed this a lot. I'm not sure I'd call it good, particularly, but I'd call Garza's performance amazing and while Mistico loses a lot of what makes him stand out as a generic rudo, he was still fun. Garza has just been so much fun in 2010. I realize he's past his prime on some level here (though you'd hardly know it) and he's much better known for his matches earlier in his career, but his charisma has been off the charts all year. I'm a less is more sort of guy for the most part, and I'll take character work over great dives and athleticism. That Garza was still able to bring both to the table has made this enjoyable. What he could do in the ring against a crowbar like Andersen is up there with the best I've ever seen. Yes, the ceiling is relatively low and no, I wouldn't want to see it every night, but dipping in and out and seeing it a couple of times? Hugely enjoyable.
How can you not want to beat the crap out of this guy?
There sure wasn't much "supre libre" about this match but it was spirited and they did go at it. It started with them attacking Volador before Strongman made it to the ring. The crowd was behind him but despite the whole supre libre thing, the ref kept things mostly under control (under control being stifling the other, larger tecnico on the outside, slowing him down: which looked like this, shadowboxing included).
It was a good heated beatdown. I'm not a huge fan of using the ref for heat, especially in what's supposed to be a super libre match but it makes some sense when a guy so big is on the outside. It gives the illusion of some southern tag build without actually having it. Whatever works. They kept the beatdown interesting at least:
Finally, they took Volador out to the extent that they could double team Andersen, and made quick work of him, finishing him off with a 619 and a double pin. Then, Mistico got to show off his strength (which, I really think, despite his size was something that helped get him over. It was the sort of showmanship he learned from working so much with Wagner and Ultimo Guerrero years before) setting up the tandem Garza-2-Sleep kick and the end of the fall:
From there, things started to slide right into the comeback and dissention. Garza's a great villain in that he's a complete coward and willing to throw his partners under the bus and that was certainly true here, helped along by the fact that Mistico was on his way to turning back (he was in all white again for what it was worth). What followed was a litany of chickenshit antics as he tried to avoid a pissed off Strongman. It started with Mistico shoving him into the ring, and then him hiding in the corner praying:
Then, when Mistico came in to get beaten on, he casually nailed Volador instead of helping his partner and followed that up with some very helpful cheerleading before retreating out of the ring:
This led to more of Mistico being angry with Garza, especially because he kept coming to Garza's rescue against Strongman and even continues to do so, despite his anger. Garza returns the favor by doing nothing but
begging off
watching with a groan as Mistico bounced off of Strongman
and cheering some more.
Unsurprisingly, the tecnicos took the caida.
The tercera was a lot of what you'd expect. More bouncing off of Strongman, who really was a great prop for guys as skilled as Garza and Mistico. Volador and Mistico got to do their usual exchange, down to the tandem handsprings off the rope, and I'll take clowning over that any day. Things end with Strongman having his way with Garza in the corner, chopping away and hamming it up in between. Garza finally has enough and fouls big to take the win. The pose after the foul is the most beautiful thing:
Actually this, in the post match challenges, was pretty beautiful too:
Look, I knew what I was going to be watching coming in, but I've bought into it completely. 18 minutes, or whatever, of Garza being a stooge against an immovable object with Mistico and Volador doing their thing in the background, is as good a use of my time as anything right now. I had fun and it was pretty obvious that Hector did as well. I know I've been posting lots of gifs here, but it gets the point across: Hector was awesome.
MLJ: A Garza Odyssey 19: Gigante Bernard, Shocker, Strong Man vs Héctor Garza, Terrible, Texano, Jr.
2010-05-28 @ Arena México
Gigante Bernard, Shocker, Strong Man vs Héctor Garza, Terrible, Texano, Jr.
1:30 in
http://youtu.be/gdI8S2N2HPw
http://youtu.be/ozq_PIup4QM
The Garza train rolls on. Yes, this had more Strongman, but it also had Garza teaming with Terrible and Texano, Jr, which is just a killer rudo trio. Texano and Terrible really had a great act and I'm glad that I have a bit more time with the three of them now. I'm still not entirely sure where I'm going next or even how long I'll stay in 2010. I thought about ending at Sin Salida since I'm just about there but I might make it all the way to the Anniversary show, because that'd let me see some of La Peste Negro vs Los Invasores and Olimpico (who I am still high on from the 06 GdI stuff I saw) lose his mask. Moving on, I'm going to be headed to either the Casas vs Mistico feud or more likely the Terrible vs Rush feud. We'll see though.
This was sort of a double spectacle since it had a visiting Giant Bernard who had been pushed with bottom of the screen graphics earlier on. I know they had sent Sombra to New Japan around this time and obviously Tanahashi had just been in to win (and then lose) the trios titles. Bernard was going to be a rudo for the rest of the tour but for some reason he was on the tecnico side here. I get the impression that they pretty much ignored the Invasores stuff on the Friday night show too. CMLL politics and booking are, once again, beyond me.
This was Texano, Terrible, and Garza getting to play full on cowardly and dastardly rudos against the sheer force that was Strongman and Bernard. Shocker was there and maybe he had a terrible 2012 and 2013 but I really haven't seen lazy Shocker yet. I've seen overly pandering Shocker, sure, but he's been energetic and dynamic throughout. For what it's worth Garza's still shrugging about his turn and slapping fans' hands. He can't help himself. He's just bad by nature.
Ideally they would have run this with Shocker playing FIP and maybe even Strongman showing some signs of vulnerability in order to get Bernard over big. That's not really what happened. There weren't a ton of moments in the two caidas this went where the tecnicos were in trouble. Early on Shocker got to shine only to fall prey to Garza being nefarious, but it didn't last.
As I said, part of the story of the match was this: Texano and Terrible (and Garza) were used to Strongman; they knew how to deal with him. They were able to triple team and temporarily get the better of him, but Bernard was an unknown quantity. I don't think Strongman really played into that well, but Bernard did. Little things like a double noggin knocker that you don't see a lot in trios matches made him feel like a force in total control despite the fact he was double or triple teamed. He even got to walk over and kiss Commandante knocking her off the apron. The primera ended with both he and Strongman hitting Vader bombs in opposite corners. Then, as Garza went to break up the pins, Shocker hit the ropes, causing Garza to drop down in a pretty hilarious fit of begging.
There was about a minute of heat in the segunda. Commandate distracted the larger tecnicos on the outside, allowing for Garza to kick Shocker in the skull and for the rudos to swarm him. They did the double hiptoss in the double bomb. But Bernard found his way back and the expression Garza had when he realized it was golden.
It all came to a head shortly thereafter, with Shocker hitting a dive, Strongman locking in his torture rack, and Garza, when he tried to break it all up again, jumping right into Bernard's double choke bomb.
Certainly a good showcase for Bernard, but really that had more to do with the rudos being very good at what they did than the tecnicos getting out of the way to let him shine.
MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 18: Strong Man & Volador Jr. vs Héctor Garza & Místico [Relevos Increíbles]
Taped 2010-05-24 @ Arena Puebla
Strong Man & Volador Jr. vs Héctor Garza & Místico [Relevos Increíbles]
7:48 in
http://youtu.be/zTZr2WZy_qE
http://youtu.be/lS8fXwvY278
http://youtu.be/CEC2EmCZyDw
A few notes to start. First, Mr. Aguila interfered at the end of that Sombra vs Psicosis match I don't have video of that was at the last show. Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. came out to even the sides so he's working with CMLL. Then the press conference happened (here's a link of pictures/recap: http://estrellasdelring.blogspot.com/2010/05/independientes-vs-cmll-proimo-6-de.html), where they announced Garza and Aguila the leader of the group and set up a bunch of matches for Sin Salida. They didn't announce Maximo vs Taichi hair vs hair yet, but that's a brilliant match idea since Taichi's hair was so freaking annoying. Normally the Sin Salida ('No Exit') name represented the cage match but this year they pushed away from the gimmick to do the Los Invasores series.
As of now, I intend to go through the whole card once I get there but we'll see. It wasn't a particularly strong card on paper. Either cubs or Rob (I forget which) pointed out at the time that the crowd who was going to go see LA Park vs La Parka (II) at the AAA show the same night weren't going to be swayed by Los Dinomitas vs Rayo. Maybe they would be partially swayed by CMLL running a $1 peso for kids promotion.
I've got a series of Strongman matches here, but they all have something going for them. In general, in small doses, I actually think Strongman was servicable. He was a useful prop, not unlike Porky in some ways, though Porky obviously brings a lot more charisma to the table. Strongman, on the other hand, bring strength and athleticism to some degree. Good wrestlers can use him, and the ones I'm looking at over these matches are Mistico, Garza, Terrible and Texano, Jr. Also, I'm glad to get a last look at rudo Mistico in the increibles match here because he's about to turn back once and for all.
So this was a revelos incriebles match, presumably because when announced, Garza was still on the line of turning and Mistico was about to turn back. I'm glad they got to work together like this at least once or twice though. Volador and Strongman were a pretty brutal team but at least they were over. In a US (See: Southern) tag match, Volador would eat the heat as face-in-peril and Strongman would make the hot tag. In Lucha that doesn't entirely work. Instead, they had a lot of drawing Strongman in so he could get double teamed from behind, and when they finally started to work on Volador it was effective, but only for a minute or two. They were preventing the tag, but ultimately it didn't matter as Volador just rolled out. It isn't totally ineffective since the idea is that rudos can double team so long as tecnicos can't mount a comeback but it's still a little backwards. Anyway, the primera ended with a tandem alley oop dropkick on Strongman and the use of Volador as a range weapon onto his partner, with a double pin followed by the appropriate image of Strongman sitting up pissed off.
Segunda was more of the same, with a decent amount of preventing the tag for no reason, before Strongman finally comes in, unleashed, allowing for the comeback, including Volador hitting La Mistica. Tercera was a reset and a lot of using Strongman as a prop and bouncing off of him before the eventual foul by Mistico and the challenges for a supre libre match.
The very best part of it was Garza's taunting after breaking up a tecnico advantage.
I've been watching his matches for the entirety of the year and his charisma was just off the charts amazing. His character work was so good and believable. He was absolutely the rogue you loved to hate and hated to love. Mistico on the other hand was a perfectly fine rudo. He did things right. He did them with meaning and gusto, and I think it fit his natural personality in some ways, but he was worth so much more as a tecnico. I'm not saying it's EASY to be a rudo dick, but there is a paint by numbers element to it. You still need to paint well and if you want to stand out, bring something unique to the table but Mistico's dynamic execution and energy and his connection with the crowd made him so much more valuable as a tecnico.
Anyway, this was fine for what it was but what it was had some endemic flaws. I'm kind of curious what they'll do with the Super Libre match.
MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 13: Shocker, Strong Man, Toscano vs Atlantis, Héctor Garza, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]
Taped 2010-04-18 @ Arena México
Shocker, Strong Man, Toscano vs Atlantis, Héctor Garza, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]
2:11 in
http://youtu.be/TjQrOuYcDmo
http://youtu.be/kk4qWR__P5A
Simply put, this is what I sat through those Porky matches to get to. This was a Relevos Increíbles match, sure, but after a cute first minute or two, Garza was all out rudo. Rarely in my life have I seen a wrestler who was enjoying himself as much as I think Garza did as a newly minted rudo. It's a damn good thing too because this match also had 2010 Shocker and Jon (Anderson) Strongman (so that first sentence could be "THIS is what I sat through those matches for?!!!" or something, but that would be unfair. I enjoyed this).
I think Shocker had a pretty good 2014. The nominal rudo turn motivated him. The feud with Rush was heated and he remained pretty spirited after it. Before that, though, he had a reputation of being a step behind, fat and lazy relative to earlier in his career, and that was sort of evident here, but only sort of since after the start, he kind of drops out until the very end. Anderson was HUGE. Absolutely huge. Scott Steiner at his hugest huge. He was a bodybuilder, strong man, powerlifter, etc and storyline was Shocker found him and brought him in to be part of a new Guapos unit. I'm pretty certain most people saw him as the worst part of 2009-2010 CMLL at the time. I actually didn't mind his act much at first but it was old by the end of the match, which really does say a lot. Third tecnico was Toscano, the former Tarzan Boy, who I always find more than competent and good at what he does.
The quick sum up is that this match had a beat down in the primera into the segunda, a comeback, and then a reset with way too much Strongman shtick in the tercera. Really, though, I'd like to just follow Garza around the ring a bit. Bear with me as I try to highlight just how fun he was in his role:
He came out fourth, after the tecnicos, and immediately prayed and shrugged to the sky, as if he asking god if he really blamed him for being in this match. He snuck behind one of the dancers and danced with her while he was waiting for his teammates to come down and actively seemed excited and surprised when the GdI theme hit. Then, once they hit the ring, he hung outside, doing some push-ps on the ramp. This annoyed Strongman who came out to the ramp. Garza dropped to a knee, prayed, and offered a hand shake. He then pulled the hand back just as Guerrero and Atlantis swarmed in from behind. Even then, Garza shadowboxed in the air for a few seconds before casually coming in and kicking Strongman from behind. They slipped back out to the ramp and he rather triumphantly hit the three man GdI body splash, making sure to kick imaginary dirt onto Strongman on his way back in. A couple of little kicks to the other tecnicos later and the rudos took the first fall. This was all highly entertaining.
It continued to be so into the segunda. Hector jawed with fans at ringside only stopping to kick a set up Strongman, happily nailed Toscano from behind when he was starting to come back, and then as Ultimo Guerrero had Toscano in the camel clutch, looked to the crowd, laughed, winked, and then finally kicked him. He was kind enough to caringly and carefully roll Toscano out of the ring though. Very earnest. He cut off Strongman's first comeback attempt to with (surprise, surprise) a kick to the back. After his partners hit charges into the corner, though, he ended up in a big choke and press slam, followed by another choke to lift him up. Here he begged and pleaded, but Strongman ripped off his shirt and hit a huge chop in the corner. As Toscano and Shocker rolled up the other rudos, Garza headed for the hills down the rampway, letting it happen.
I'm not going to go all the way through the tercera, because there was way too much of people chopping Strongman to no effect or bouncing around him, and I've got a few more weeks of Garza, at the least, lined up, so best not to use it all up at once, but I will note a few things. The tercera started with Garza teasing the ring girl. When he tried to chop Strongman, he hurt his hand; when Ultimo Guerrero tried to do it, he did not. I think that follows along with how UG presents himself in general. He's willing to show ass at key moments, but he works very hard to keep himself strong, sometimes to the detriment of the match, but to the benefit of a persona that can be used from match to match. To point, Toscano actually sold a high five from Strongman.
The tercera ended with Garza running away again, allowing the tecnicos to pick up the win. That wasn't a bad start to the revamped character, but I really would have liked some sort of DQ-foul finish instead (and it's not every day I say that; clean finishes are generally great after all), but those usually only happen when building up a specific feud, not just to establish a character. Anyway, this was a lot of fun, despite all of the strikes it had against it coming in, and that bodes well for the next number of matches.
Blue Demon Jr., Mascara Sagrada & Strongman Jon Andersen vs. La Migra (Oliver John, Derek Sanders & Zack Reeb)
Wow, I can see why they took the time to unearth this 4 year old match. What a pile. You know that Blue Demon Jr.'s side is going to go over, but there are plenty of interesting ways to get to your destination. This was not one of them. The tecnicos get - I kid you not - 98% of the offense. The only offense that La Migra got would be when one of them was in a submission, and one of the others would come in a break up the submission. That was it! Oliver John got a couple chops in on Demon, also hit that Jeff Jarrett move where your opponent is draped over the ropes and you run at him and end up draping your leg over him.
The match was almost 16 minutes long! That is so much time to have an awesome match. But the tecnicos did not show ass for two seconds in this whole match. The first 7 minutes were spent with one of the tecnicos (Demon or Strongman, as Sagrada sat on the aprong until the final minute of the match) standing in the middle of the ring, then a member of La Migra would come in, get chopped by Demon, flat back bump and roll to the floor, then repeat with the next member. Strongman would get in the ring, a member of La Migra would come in, lock up with him, and Strongman would shove him down. Usually each guy got shoved down a couple times. This literally happened for the first 8 minutes of the match.
The rest of the match were members of La Migra getting put into submission holds, coming in to break up submission holds, and then getting put back into submission holds. It just would not end. Demon would slowly lock on a submission, it would get broken up, and then he'd just put on another submission. Eventually all three of them came in and awkwardly all got into position to be put into submissions by the tecnicos, including Sanders doing the hilarious "I'm gonna jump at you legs first like we're at a picnic and the wheelbarrow races are starting!" as Demon left him no good option of getting into position. Then the match mercifully ended with a clunky triple submission.
So I'm still dying to know, what the hell is the point of this show? They pay to air it, so they must have a goal in mind. They air mostly matches from 4+ years ago, featuring mostly wrestlers who no longer work for them. A lot of the matches they air aren't very good (with this one being arguably the worst one they've aired so far). They don't advertise upcoming live events. They don't try and sell merchandise. They don't even mention Pro Wrestling Revolution, their own brand name. For some reason they chose to re-brand their TV property as "Uprising", which doesn't make tons of sense in building their PWR brand. They just seem to exist to show old matches, but they PAY to show these old matches.
The best case scenario is that people find the show, and tune in the next week...but since they don't get advertising dollars this really doesn't benefit them at all. Please, anybody, tell me why you think this show exists?
Come journey back in time with me to 7/25/09, thanks to a promotion inexplicably willing to use paid programming to show 4+ year old matches at midnight on a local Spanish-speaking network.
1. Strongman Jon Andersen vs. Oliver John
It's kind of shocking how poorly edited this show is, as the bell for the match doesn't even hit until 10 minutes into the show. It is a half hour show. Literally the first 10 minutes of the program were ring entrances. You are paying money to show guys walking to the ring, jawing with fans, slowly wandering around ringside, and standing in the ring for A THIRD OF THE SHOW THAT YOU PAY MONEY TO AIR! They easily could have fit two matches onto this show if they had just started with Andersen and John in the ring. But I guess we needed to see La Migra revolutionize the art of getting heat by throwing tortillas at Mexicans for 8 minutes. Hilariously, when the bell finally rings, THAT'S when we go to our first commercial break. Amazing. That means that halfway through the show there has been zero wrestling, zero promos, zero ads for upcoming shows, nothing whatsoever that could benefit the promotion or viewers at home in any way. I would LOVE to hear any sort of justification from the people that paid for this to represent their company.
And why did we sit through 10+ minutes of ring entrances? Why, so we could get a 2.5 minute match that ends with John getting counted out by walking to the back, of course! Once the bell rang, John tried to avoid locking up with Strongman, rolling to the floor a couple times. Eventually Andersen caught him and clotheslined him to the floor. Then the other two guys in La Migra got on the apron, and got clotheslined off. Then John snuck in with a chair, hit Strongman with it, and bailed to the floor again, followed by all of La Migra walking to the back and getting counted out.
Yep, couple clotheslines, a chairshot. That's why we needed more than 10 minutes of ring entrances. You see, we wouldn't have been able to figure out that we need to boo one of the guys, and cheer the large roided up guy who kept asking for the crowd to cheer. This match set up a tag match later on in the show, so I assume we get that in a coming week, because lord knows we need to take up a few weeks of programming to set up a tag match that took place last decade.
I have no clue what the point of this program is.
2. El Amante & Ulysses (The Latin Explosion) vs. Derek Sanders & Zack Reeb (La Migra)
Ironically this match is joined right when the bell rings and both teams are in the ring. So...they DO know how to edit filler...which means that they just genuinely felt that showing 10 minutes of ring entrances was the best possible use of their paid programming. Wow.
This is a fun match, a solid 8 minutes of wrestling. Ulysses is a smaller guy who is good when sticking to his size, and stumbles when working bigger. Here his armdrags and headscissors look real good, but then he starts working as if he's much bigger and tries a powerslam and backdrop and it becomes clear that Sanders is working with a Real Doll. Amante is the better of the two and is real fluid in his ranas and dropkicks. Sanders and Reeb are a good team, know how to stooge, and know how to give logical comebacks. Match ends with Reeb hitting an accidental clothesline on the ref, then Latin Explosion getting the pinfall when another ref runs in. Naturally the ruling is reversed and La Migra are still the tag champs. Obviously this was such a devastating moment for Latin Explosion that they felt it would still be relevant 4 years later. Also, 3 of the guys in this match are no longer with the promotion. Jon Andersen hasn't working here in over 3 years. Only Oliver John and Derek Sanders remain in the promotion, so they paid money to promote a guy who hasn't worked there in 3 years, and a heartbreaking moment of an underdog tag team (who also hasn't worked there in 3 years) almost winning the tag titles.
This is a promotion that runs practically monthly, and has been doing so for 5 years. What could possibly be gained from showing matches this old?
